Elden Ring: Nightreign Reviews
Elden Ring: Nightreign is everything a fan could want from a Fromsoft standalone DLC - a grand and different challenge with a co-op soul.
FromSoftware's multiplayer spin-off is an exhilarating rush and a celebration of the studio's prior achievements Souls veterans will devour.
A near-perfect merging of FromSoftware game design and roguelike structure, Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold experiment and one of 2025's highlights.
Elden Ring Nightreign is just as confusing and abrasive as FromSoftware's other games, but there's really nothing else like it.
When Elden Ring Nightreign is played exactly as it was designed to be played, it’s one of the finest examples of a three-player co-op game around – but that's harder to do than it should be, and playing solo is poorly balanced.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a must-play for any souls combat fan, and an excellent experience to tackle with your friends. The smartest asset reuse in the industry, it masterfully delivers addictive gameplay with some innovative ideas that only slightly miss the mark on execution and leave you wishing they had added more new content.
Diving into game after game, experiencing that Soulslike loop in a microcosm, was unbelievably satisfying, and those moments of victory have never felt better. There are some minor quirks, like the lack of cross-platform play and spongy bosses, but on the whole, Nightreign is one of the most inventive things to come out of FromSoftware since it coined the Soulslike genre.
Elden Ring Nightreign successfully condenses the Elden Ring experience, cramming challenging combat, exploration, worldbuilding, and character development into a fast-paced and thrilling multiplayer game
I can not help but to love Elden Ring Nightreign. It's a strange beast, kitbashed from parts of Elden Ring that feel clunky in places (god, the vaulting system can be frustrating at times). It has bugs, and it has blemishes. It's not a traditional Soulslike experience and as such will surely turn away fresh faces and diehard veterans alike. But it's also a celebration of you, the massive community of Soulslike players, and, specifically Elden Ring players. It's a game and a story about you, and all the weirdos you've met along the way. If this is a send off to Elden Ring and The Lands Between, it's a perfect one.
The spin-off to one of the best games in the last five years, can Nightreign live up to the high expectations of Elden Ring?
Elden Ring Nightreign takes the Souls formula in a new direction, blending rogue-like elements of Hades with the closing ring as seen in Fortnite to deliver a multiplayer challenge all its own. But with runs inevitably feeling time-consuming and pointless unless successfully besting a boss, and little else on offer in terms of replay value, Nightreign leaves a mixed impression.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a multiplayer game for people who prefer single player games. It’s a celebration of the power of silent connection, of fleeting virtual bonds, of giddy celebratory gesturing between strangers, and of collective, gruelling perseverance. It's a fresh take on the steep challenge of the Souls formula that burrows into you, begging to be repeated. It delivers a frenzied high that’s quite unlike anything FromSoftware has produced so far.
Sadly, the repetitive nature and balancing issues also can make it feel like a series of the world's longest Soulslike runbacks ever—over, and over, and over.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a tremendously unusual venture for a challenge giant like FromSoftware. As a sort of hybrid of a battle royale, a hero shooter, and the Souls-like genre itself, Elden Ring Nightreign stands out as a very solid experience in FromSoftware's catalog that could offer the developer a lot of potential.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash. Elden Ring: Nightreign offers FromSoftware's trademark challenging combat, all in seamless co-op, combined with the roguelike elements of games like Hades, with some of the urgency of battle royale games sprinkled in.
Elden Ring Nightreign may be the hardest game FromSoftware has ever made, but not because of its massive bosses or all the mechanics you need to understand to beat the games, but because to enjoy it properly you need to have friends; friends who are crazy about Souls.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Built as a way to capitalize on the success of 2022’s Elden Ring without committing to a full sequel, Nightreign puts a clever co-op spin on the open-world game by turning it into a roguelike. It’s a smart remix that gets more use out of existing assets while inventing a replayable multiplayer game with unexpected strategic depth despite its RPG hooks being much more streamlined than a standard Soulslike. Fully finding that hook takes a lot of effort, but it pays off for those patient enough to push through its most obvious flaws.
Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t your dad’s Dark Souls game. It’s not a slow, methodical, and exploration-driven experience. It is high octane, caffeine into the veins, run until you drop. The game kept me up at night, well past my bedtime, as I tried to clear just one more Expedition – maybe this next run would be the one. I went to sleep with it on my mind and woke up ready to dive back in. Even after rolling credits, I wanted to get in and keep playing. FromSoftware has done it again.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a fun multiplayer offshoot, but it also doesn't come close to the dizzying heights we're used to seeing from FromSoftware. It's an interesting experiment, and I am glad it exists despite my mixed feelings, but it's a shallow happiness when I expect far more profound experiences from this company.
Fortnite meets Elden Ring in a matchup where a three-person team faces so many high-speed challenges you may feel distinctly short-handed